Dallas Cowboys Blog

IRVING — Cowboys running back Felix Jones has regained his quickness and is “ready to go,” owner Jerry Jones said Friday morning on KRLD-FM 105.3.

Felix Jones had three carries for 13 yards in the Cowboys’ first four games and didn’t have a game in which he had more than one carry. But at Baltimore, Felix Jones rushed 18 times for 92 yards and had a 22-yard touchdown run.

Felix Jones will start at running back Sunday at Carolina with DeMarco Murray out with a sprained left foot.

“Felix Jones is one of the most conscientious, hardest workers that I’ve been around as a football player,” Jerry Jones said. “You have to almost shoot him to get him off the practice field. So he works at it.”

Felix Jones came into training camp not in the best of shape. He failed the Cowboys’ conditioning test and was relegated to “remedial running” during the first few practices before passing the test the next time around.

“Now, he did come in, not the shape that he wanted to be and I don’t have an answer for that because that’s not typical of where he is,” Jerry Jones said. “But since that time, he’s gotten quicker, he is quicker. Maybe he had a little extra pound or two that he shouldn’t have had or wouldn’t have had if he couldn’t do it over. But in my mind, he’s ready to go, he’s just quick. What I did say last week and what I did say the last couple of weeks is he’s quicker in practice. You can see some of the quickness that he needs to have his game at its best.”

Felix Jones has been the Cowboys kickoff returner this season but won’t likely continue to do that Sunday at Carolina since his workload will increase in the regular offense. That means running back Lance Dunbar will likely return kickoffs Sunday against the Panthers.

“We’ll probably alter that, but I haven’t talked to Joe [DeCamillis] and don’t know exactly what they’re going to do,” Jerry Jones said about Felix Jones returning kickoffs Sunday. “It’s a little challenging to use your starter in the kicking game in general. We have to scratch our heads a little bit sometimes with a guy like Dez [Bryant] or back when we had him Deion Sanders going back on punts when you need him so bad where you need him so bad where they play the most snaps if they are starters on defense or offense.”